The Miracle
by writerfan2013
Summary: It is 2077 and Kiera has made it back home, but some things have changed. - How I hope it ends. Alec x Kiera, gentle romance.


She walks into his small, black office, scattering hangers-on. "I'm back."

It takes him a moment. He has been dreaming, wondering what he might do if his theory for a time travel device were ever proven. Would he go? See what the past was like?

Of course not. To implement such a thing would be beyond foolish. In greedy hands it would corrupt. In criminal hands it might destroy all their futures. His theory will remain just that, an idea to toy with in the privacy of his own mind.

Why risk changing the past when the present holds everything you could reasonably ask for? Including Kiera.

He smiles at her, gestures her to where he sits at his circular glass desk.

Kiera approaches, and her hair is its customary black, her eyes bright blue, her expression one of calm control, as usual. But she looks different from how she did at dinner last night. She looks older, ruffled, scarred. Battle weary.

And then he gets it. His brain does a little flip and readjusts.

"Kiera," he says, rising.

People are nearby. "Mr Sadler," Kiera says. on an outbreath that is a collapse of long-maintained strength.

He waves away the staff. With a tap of his sleeve he locks his office doors.

"You're wearing a suit," she says. She glances at her own scuffed protector outfit.

"Why wouldn't I?" he says. "It's the coolest thing I ever invented."

Her eyes widen. "Alec!" She stumbles across the gleaming floor to him. Caught off guard, he opens his arms and amazingly she comes, wraps herself round his neck and clings to him, rubbing her face in his shoulder.

His mind races as he pats her cautiously on the back. "Time travel, "he says in wonder. "Jeez, I can't believe I actually did it."

She looks at him. They are the same height.

"You look different," he says. She is scanning him, he can tell. "You've been and come back." For his part, he wants to take her straight to the lab, run traces, find out...everything. But she is too near, too suddenly and completely here, to let her go yet.

Kiera frowns at his words. Then her jaw drops. "You haven't done it yet?"

"No."

"You haven't sent me?"

"You? If I ever created something to allow time travel, I would never send you, Kiera." Maybe her weasel ex husband. "You have a son." He shakes his head. He wants to know in what kind of future he would think it ok to separate a mother and child, but he dares not ask.

"Sam," she whispers. "He's alive." Colour drains from her face. Alec draws her over to the couch and sits with her. Tears stream down her cheeks. He holds her hand and marvels that she simply accepts this touch from him.

Gradually she recovers. "But if I never met you when you were young...what's going on here?" She looks down at their linked hands.

"I... "

"You love me," she says before he can form anything like an excuse for his selfish obsession. "Here as well as ...there. 2012."

"2012?" He does the math. Jeez. "I'd think all my Christmases came at once. "

"You kind of did..." She smiles fondly at something in her memory.

He is still reeling. "Wait a second. You and eighteen year old me."

"Why not?"

"Ah..." He cannot bring himself to say age difference.

She is still pursuing her line of enquiry. "So. What happened between us back then never happened? Are we starting again? Me and ... future you."

"Old me."

She shrugs.

"I've been ... Wooing you," he says. He gives a wry grin. "Ever since I saw you at academy."

She raises her eyebrows. Even exhausted and in shock, she is startlingly beautiful. "Any luck?"

"For someone so far below your level, surprisingly yes."

"It must be your money and power. So, you and me, still a thing. Ok. -I'm not married, then?"

"Not any more," he says carefully. He sees thoughts racing across her face. "Sam is not my son," he says.

"I have to see him," she says.

"Of course." He dials complex commands into his sleeve.

She lifts his hand fleetingly to her lips. "I'll tell you everything,"she says. "I promise." She hesitates, then gently kisses his cheek.

He clasps her impulsively, squeezing her to him. She gasps. "I'm not that old," he says. "And I guess I have plenty to tell you too."

"Then... Later." She moves to rise.

He laughs. "You sound like 2012."

"No, Alec," she says, turning towards the door and the waiting transport. "I sound like you."

He watches her stride away. Time travel is dangerous and stupid, but it seems that despite the terrible risk taken by another him, it has come good, more, has created a miracle. He must work now, harder than ever to prevent his theory becoming fact, but also, and forever, he must be grateful.


End file.
